This article was written in 2015 but it is as timely today as it was then. Maybe more timely, because in 2015, who would have dreamed that Betsy DeVos would soon be U.S. Secretary of Education?
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a bill mill founded in 1973 and funded by the Koch Brothers, the DeVos family, and major corporations. It operates secretively. It does not issue press releases. It churns out model laws that state legislators introduce into their own states to deregulate business and privatize the public sector for profit. It is a stealth political campaign to privatize everything for profit while classified by the IRS as a charity. Its members include one of every four state legislators in the nation. It’s corporate members include some of the nation’s pre-eminent businesses.
One of the major targets of ALEC is public education, because it is public. ALEC has model legislation for charter schools, vouchers, and cybercharters. It has Model legislation to eliminate collective bargaining and unions. It has Model legislation to lower standards for teachers and deregulate entry into teaching.
To learn more about ALEC, watch DeVos and read the website ALEC Exposed.
Alecexposed.com
Circulate this post and the links to everyone you know.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The link you provided is wrong. It is a .com. Here is the correct one. https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
An good book on this topic is Gordon Lafer’s “The One Percent Solution: How Corporations are Remaking America One State at a Time.” The self-serving justifications advanced by ALEC and the Chamber of Commerce for destroying worker rights and shredding the safety net will leave you stunned. Lafer also authored the “Spending Blind” report which details charter abuses in CA.
CROSS POSTED AT https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Cashing-in-on-Kids-172-AL-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Alec-Exposed_Alec-Legislation_Corporations_Democracy-180119-393.html#comment686560
Here is the “baby ALEC” working on local legislation (city, county, municipality) It is designed to co-opt your locally elected officials so they will advance the policy agendas of ALEC. Elected officials who belong to baby ALEC –the American City County Exchange–receive perks and ready to use ordinances/legislation to enhance corporate power in local affairs. Here is a list of resolutions from the ACCE. Note the resolution that would formally limit public speech at public meetings to 3 minutes for any individual, and 3 minutes for one speaker who may represent a larger group. https://www.alec.org/task-force/american-city-county-exchange/model-policy/
As much as I dislike what ALEC represents, I have to admire their effectiveness and organization. They are operating and influencing policy at every level of government. They are a mighty well-funded beast that operates in the shadows. I wish progressives had such tenacity and organization.
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse.
Pense belongs to ALEC and so does most of Trump’s cabinet.
Vice President Mike Pence held a secret meeting with Charles Koch the day before the Koch network’s regular donor summit in Colorado Springs in June 2017, according to The Hill. The meeting was not on his official schedule, and a spokesman for the vice president’s office denied that he would be meeting with the Koch brothers’ network earlier in the day during which the 50-minute meeting occurred. Also attending were Marc Short, President Trump’s director of legislative affairs and Pence’s former chief of staff; Marty Obst, who leads Pence’s new political action committee; James Davis, a spokesman for the Koch brothers’ network; Mark Holden, Koch Industries’ general counsel; Tim Phillips, president of the Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity; and Brian Hooks, president of the Charles Koch Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute.[22]
The Koch brothers’ political donor network “rivals the Republican National Committee in size, scope and budget.” And while Charles Koch “has been openly critical” of President Trump since he entered the Republican Presidential Primary, according to Politico,[23] refusing to back his presidential bid,[24] Pence has a much longer history with the Kochs,[22] who reportedly had picked Pence for president.[25]
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mike_Pence#Pence_Holds_Secret_Meeting_with_Charles_Koch.2C_June_2017
Trump’s Cabinet choices reflect deep Koch influence
“According to an ongoing analysis
by the left-leaning Washington D.C.-based policy research and advocacy organization Center for American Progress, nearly a third of Trump’s transition team has ties to Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers that own the second largest privately held company in the country, Koch Industries, and have founded and funded many conservative organizations. That’s 72 of the 236 people the organization researched, including those on Trump’s transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, and Department of Energy.”
Below is a list of members of Trump’s transition team and Cabinet picks so far who are tied to the Koch brothers, ALEC …
On that list: Pence, Tilleson, Rick Perry, Mike Pompeo, Scott Pruitt, Jeff Sessions, Ryan Zinke, Wilber Ross, Nikki Haley, Tom Price, Betsy DeVos, Myron Ebell, Elaine Chao, Doug Domenech, Ned Mamula, Scott Cameron, and Thomas Pyle.
And “There are many other transition team staffers involved with Koch-funded ventures and ALEC members.”
http://www.hcn.org/articles/donald-trumps-cabinet-choices-reflect-koch-influence
Even if Trump is impeached and kicked out of the White House, the list of replacements in the line of suggestion is riddled with people that have deep connections to Charles and David Koch and ALEC.
The Koch brothers have a stranglehold on the GOP and the White House. Our only chance is to take back at least one House of Congress in November this year. If we take back the Senate, that would be enough to block most if not all legislation but if we get the House too, then the Koch’s will be checked until the 2020 presidential elections, but Trump and his ALEC mob will still continue to do as much damage as possible through presidential executive orders.
It looks like Trump was channeling the Koch brothers with so many of the ALEC puppets in key positions.
I wonder if we had access to Trump’s IRS documents if we would discover that the Koch brothers loaned Trump or his family business millions without interest or a payment plan.
Or maybe the Koch brothers did what the Russian oligarchs are doing, buying up Trump properties at higher prices than they are worth with cash through shell companies in an attempt to conceal the trail back to them.